


The Paint Saga: A Collection of Janis/Regina Stories

by MiMyMomo



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Hanahaki Disease, Implied Sexual Content, One Shot Collection, Post-Canon, bad language, each story mentions paint in it somehow, nothing happens just some innuendoes, they're soft and gay, what more could you ask for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-06 05:10:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15187517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiMyMomo/pseuds/MiMyMomo
Summary: This is just a collection of a bunch of one shots that star everyone's problematic favs: Janis Sarkisian and Regina George. All take place after the end of the musical. Some stories will overlap, others will not.





	1. Prom

It was a normal Friday in late April at North Shore High School. The group of seniors consisting of Cady, Janis, Damian and the three former Plastics were sitting and enjoying lunch until-  
  
Duh! Duh Duh! Duh Duh!  
“Hey Juliet! Hey Juliet!”  
  
Suddenly the sound of an early 2000’s pop song - that was definitely older than they were - blasted through a portable speaker. A lanky teen wearing a snapback hat with tuffs of beach blonde curls sticking out the front and sides, stood up by a lunch table on the opposite side of the lunchroom.  
  
“Oh no not again...” Janis groaned not turning around to give the public spectacle any satisfaction of garnering her attention.  
  
“Oh look,” Cady added, tilting her head to the far away table. “More people are joining in” referencing the additional three boys joining the other teen in some form of a lip-synced choreographed dance number.  
  
It was prom season at North Shore High. And with the big event being only weeks away that meant more and more promposals were happening.  
  
Todays victim was a girl named Juliet Espinoza, a dark haired senior in Janis recognized from her history class. And the tall gangly blonde - who was clearly the worst dancer out of the group four - was her boyfriend Josh Witters, the star backstroke swimmer of North Shore high. Dancing along beside him were the three other members of the schools relay team.  
  
“Hey at least this one is kinda cute. A little on the nose with the name thing but cute nonetheless. I mean, who _hasn’t_ wished they were serenaded by a mediocre boy band in front of a large audience?” Damian asked eyes still glued to the show happening in front if him.  
  
Janis just groaned and focused in on her crappy school nachos, picking at soggy chips loaded with way too much sour cream. She looked slightly to her right to take a peek at Regina. Ever since Spring Fling junior year to two have been trying to rekindle their friendship. Regina started to give up her plastic ways and become her more natural self, cutting her hair just past shoulder length, letting it return back its natural shade, even coming out to her friends and eventually the school early on this year. After multiple apologies (mainly on Regina’s part), and hanging out the whole summer vacation, the two eventually became friends again. However, there was always some weird tension between the two girls; some unspoken feelings and desires neither wanted to address. Then about three months ago while at some party Gretchen found out about, they decided that _there_ , a stupid house party, would be a perfect place to confront the weird tension that seemed to be between them. At the end of night they walked out being something more than friends. The two kept their relationship a secret for a few weeks but was quickly found out after Damian walked in on them covered in paint (long story) making out in Janis’ garage (it also didn’t help their case that Regina’s shirt and bra were off when they were discovered). When the two girls officially announced to their friends they started dating, they were met with a mix of surprise but not really. “After Regina came out we knew it was only a matter of time” Damian told them. “Plus seeing your girlfriend shirtless wasn’t a bad indicator either.” The two’s relationship wasn’t perfect by any means. They still bumped heads and sometimes struggled with communication, not saying too little or too much, and keeping down the walls they spent years on building but they were happy. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.  
  
Regina’s eyes were glued to the scene happening in front of them. Janis shouldn’t have been surprised. Regina still loved attention despite the fact she no longer made rash or cruel actions to suffice her cravings for it.  
  
As if the blonde could sense her girlfriends stare, she turned her head to glance at Janis. She gave a her a small smile before returning her attention back the terrible dancing teens. Janis just shook her head and looked back forward.  
  
About a minute or two later the music was turned down and a muffled voice could barely be heard. Then a roar of applause erupted over the cafeteria.  
  
“I take it she said yes?”  
  
The rest of the table turned back to face away from the happy couple.  
  
“I don’t understand why you hate promposals so much Janis!” Gretchen exclaimed. “They’re so cute.”  
  
“It's not like I _hate_ them or anything!” Janis spoke up trying to defend herself. She threaded her fingers through her own short dark hair. Regina begged Janis to cut her hair along with her. (“Cut off the blonde Jan! The shaved part has already mostly grown back and besides the ends are damaged anyways”). “I mean, I think the private ones are fine. They’re more intimate and shit. I’m just not a big fan of the big public ones! They just make me feel uncomfortable I guess. I hate having everyone all in my business, and with public promposals like discount NSYNC over there that’s a one way ticket into my personal life. And plus if you're asked by someone in front of others you’re kinda pressured into saying yes even if you don’t want to!”  
  
Regina ducked her head after hearing this. Janis could tell she was blaming herself for Janis’ distaste of attention. While yes, Regina did help contribute to the quite long list of reasons why Janis hated being in a public eye longer than she absolutely needed to be, she wasn’t the only one. She had never a fan of it. Janis reached out her hand to lace her fingers through Regina’s, giving a comforting squeeze.  
  
“Look, I’m a simple girl. You could just straight up ask me “hey you wanna go to prom with me?” and I’d be cool with that. I just don’t want my answer to be some public eye candy for a few minutes.”  
  
“Oh so this that how Regina asked you?” Karen cut in. The table turned their attention to the blonde.  
  
‘Wait what?’  
  
“Or wait did you ask Regina instead?”  
  
“Uhh-”.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom” Regina spoke up, briskly rising out of her seat and towards the bathroom.  
  
“Hey that’s right Janis, you never did tell us how you decided to ask Regina to prom” Cady said.  
  
Janis just sat there silently. ‘Ask Regina. How she asked me. How I asked Regina...to prom...oh shit.’  
  
“Janis,” Gretchen began in a half calm half urgent tone, “please tell me you didn’t forget to ask Regina, your girlfriend of three months, to prom?”  
  
“Well I...” Janis trailed off avoiding eye contact with the rest of the group. No wonder Regina was staring so hard at that promposal earlier. Was she secretly wishing that Janis would hurry up and give her one?  
  
“Janis!” The group yelled out in a variety of tones ranging from shocked amusement (Damian), pitiful concern (Cady) and absolute horror (Gretchen).  
  
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It kinda just escaped my mind.”  
  
“How can asking your girlfriend to prom just escape your mind?” Gretchen questioned frantically, cheeks puffed out. She rose from her seat and leaned over the lunch table, the palms of her hands pressed hard onto the wooden surface.  
  
“Well I kinda just assumed that we were already going together. And that I didn’t have to ask...”  
  
“Oh sweetheart,” Damian chuckled. “I know your use to slumming it out with me but you didn’t think that your attention loving girlfriend wouldn’t want an actual ask or at least a confirmation that you were going together?”  
  
Instead of immediately replying Janis groaned and pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes. She was a terrible girlfriend. “Shit! What am I going to do now?”  
  
“You’re going to ask Regina of course.” Karen rolled her eyes as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.  
  
“Ask me what?” The group whipped their heads to see Regina staring questioning at the five sitting down.  
  
“Oh Janis was trying to figure out how she was going to ask you to -”. Damian quickly put his hand over Karen’s mouth. Regina just turned her attention fully onto Janis, her hard stare still present. “Okay then Janis what were going to ask me?”  
  
“Oh! I was um, going to ask you...” Janis spoke stumbling over her words. She made a quick glance around the table for some sort of emotional support, getting none in the process. ‘Some friends you guys are...’  
  
“Uh Janis?”  
  
‘Right Regina.’

“I was going to ask you...ask you if you were still going to join Damian, Caddy and I for movie night tonight!”  
  
“Movie night?” Regina questioned raising her eyebrow and folding her arms. Janis could tell Regina didn’t fully believe her.  
  
“Yep that’s it movie night” Janis finished quietly, shifting her eyes to look at anything besides her girlfriends piercing crystal blue ones.  
  
“Uh duh I always go to movie night” Regina replied, suspicion dripping from every crevices of her body from her posture to the tone of her voice. “Do you _not_ want me to come?”  
  
“W-what no! Of course I want you come!”  
  
“Then why are asking questions you already know the answer to?” Regina asked inching closer to Janis with every word.  
  
“It’s just that -”.  
  
“Oh crap Regina did you forget?” Gretchen cut in loudly. “You were supposed to come over to my place today and help me and Karen out with a project remember?”  
  
Backing away from Janis, Regina stood up straight and looked over at Gretchen. “I don’t remember saying that.”  
  
“You totally did though! I remember it and Karen does too. Right Karen?”  
  
Damian, who still had his hand on Karen’s mouth, guided her head up and down in a slow nod.  
  
Regina closed her eyes, brought her left hand up to squeeze the sides of her head and sighed. Whether it was from not remembering a fake event Gretchen just made up or her regretting being friends with and even dating one of these five idiots, Janis will never know. Maybe it was a mixture of both?  
  
As if God was tired of watching this train wreck conspire under his nose -

Riiinnnnggggg!!!  
  
“Okay come on Regina we gotta get to science class!” Cady said grabbing her backpack and pushing Regina along, barely allowing Regina time to grab her own stuff.  
  
“Wait Cady hold on!” Regina cried out, looking back at Janis. Janis just waved back and mouthed “I’ll talk to you later”. Regina rolled her eyes and turned back to face forward to sure Cady wouldn’t steer her into people.  
  
Janis let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks for the cover Gretchen”.  
  
“I only did it because I knew you needed some privacy so you can plan out how you’re going to ask Regina to prom.” Gretchen said with a smirk.  
  
Janis’ face morphed from relief to exasperation. “Seriously Gretchen?”  
  
“Absolutely! Don’t worry I know whatever you come up with will be great.”

 

* * *

 

“Janis that’s a terrible idea!”

“Well damn Caddy I’m _trying_ here!” Janis yelled flopping down face first onto the old couch in her garage. For the past three hours instead of watching movies like they usually did after school on Fridays, Janis was forcing Cady and Damian to help her come up with a way to prompose to Regina. And to say it wasn’t going well was to put it lightly. 

Damian reached over the side of the couch to give Janis a pat of the head. “There, there girl, but Caddy does have a point. That is a stupid way to ask Regina to prom.”

“I don’t know what you guys are talking about, it’s a great idea!” Janis exclaimed bringing her head up. “Think about it: I go to her locker fill it up with bags of flour and leave a note saying I bought her a bunch of flours now she has to go to prom with...okay yeah that’s a pretty shitty idea.”

“Uh yeah that’s what we’ve been saying.”

“Ugh why is this so difficult?” Janis pushed her face back into the couch cushions. 

“Maybe it’s because you’re thinking _too_ hard about this?” Cady shrugged. 

“That’s easy for you to say!” Janis spoke lifting her head again. “You didn’t have to worry about all this stuff with Aaron. All you had to do was ask him.”

Aaron and Cady were still going strong despite attending different schools and the distance between them. “Aaron didn’t even know when prom was! He’s in college! Plus after I told him about it he took me out to dinner and then we baked and decorated cookies and he made those cookies in the shape of the letters p-r-o-m. Remember that?”

Janis just rolled her eyes and placed her head on Cady’s lap. Cady automatically brought her hands up to play with Janis’ hair. “Curse you and Aaron for being a such cute couple and falling into the social trap that is ‘promposals’.”

“Okay Janis now you’re just being ridiculous -”

“No _you’re_ being ridiculous! This whole promposal thing is ridiculous!” Janis yelled bringing her arms up to wave them around. 

“See Janis that’s exactly your problem! You’re trying to push yourself into doing some big grand gesture as a way to make up to everyone else for not asking Regina earlier! And at the time your trying to deliver on some huge promposal that you think Regina wants. Sure, old Regina would’ve killed you decided not to give her the biggest promposal North Shore has ever seen, but new Regina? Not so much. If Regina wanted some giant ass promposal don’t you think she would’ve hinted the idea at you by now? She may be trying to change but she’s still Regina, and when the girl wants something she usually isn’t the most subtle about it.”

Janis was stunned into silence. For one Cady just swore, something she usually avoided doing, and two, she had hit the nail on the head. ‘Who I trying to impress with this stupid promposal thing?’

“Wow Caddy, you might actually be right.”

“I had a feeling I was” Cady said still combing her fingers through Janis’ hair.

At that moment Jani felt her phone buzz in her pocket. With a quick maneuver, she dives into her pocket and pulls out her phone. Using her thumb to unlock the screen, she sees she has a new message from Regina.

[8:34 pm] My Queen Gina <3 (Regina put her name in here):  I’m ready to kill Gretchen and Karen. It’s like they weren’t paying attention in class at all and they’re just making this project up on the fly!!!!

Janis just chuckled, ‘it’s cause they are making it up on the fly…bless Gretchen and Karen.’

[8:34 pm] My Queen Gina <3: I much rather be their with you and watching your crappy art house movie with the guys fucks the pig and his son gets eaten by the cats.

[8:34 pm] My Queen Gina <3: How’s movie night going?

[8:37 pm] Only 1 Butt: im sorry babe! and hold on TAXIDERMIA IS A MASTERPIECE!! besides that movie night is going alright. missing my snuggle partner though...who else is supposed to hog all the room on the couch???

[8:38 pm] My Queen Gina <3: Haha very funny. I swear Gretchen is purposely trying to keep me here as long as possible! Do you think she would notice if I said I was going to the bathroom and snuck out the window instead and came to your place???

Janis burst out laughing. That’s the Regina Janis knew. The one that she was best friends with in elementary and middle school. The one she lost in 8th grade. The one she thought was gone forever in grades 9-11. The one who made her way back to Janis. The one that Janis was slowly falling in love with.

[8:40 pm] Only 1 Butt: adljlfkjdlas regina you know that girl notices everything. you got this! text me later when they finally release you.

[8:42 pm] My Queen Gina <3: Ugh fine. Later loser ily

[8:40 pm] Only 1 Butt: ly2

“You know what? The thing is I do want to give Regina a nice ask to prom. Something that would make her happy and give her something to post on her Instagram,” Janis said softly still staring down at her phone with a small smile plastered on her face. “But the thing is I don’t think I’m comfortable with doing something in front of everyone at school.”

“And that’s completely fine!” Cady reassured her, Damian nodded his head from his seat adjacent to the couch. “You just need to come up with a idea that’s cute and Instagram worthy that’s not pushing too hard out of your comfort zone. Find that nice balance.”

“Like a compromise!” Damian added in.

“A compromise huh?”

“Yeah! I mean c’mon Janis you’re an artist for God’s sake! You your artistic talents and woo this girl already!” Cady joked, poking Janis’ sides. 

‘Art to...woo the girl…’ Janis swiftly lifts her head from Cady’s lap. “Guys I got an idea.” leaping off the couch, Janis walked over to her art bench and starts picking out a few brushes and large bottles of paint.

“But I might need your guys help.”

 

* * *

 

That Monday Janis ready to put her big plan into action. She spent the whole weekend, along with Damian and Cady’s help, working on it and was actually pretty pleased with the results. With Gretchen, Janis managed to find out that the small field near the baseball diamond would be empty since the baseball team would be away for a game. “That would be the perfect spot to do it!” Gretchen exclaim happily. So in their 6th period class that Monday, Janis texted Regina to meet her out on the field after her last class ended. Janis had her free art block for last period so she left a few minutes early to make sure she had everything she needed. ‘Shoot I forgot the flowers!’ She hastily texted the groupchat about her blunder saying that maybe she should put off asking Regina until tomorrow, ‘or ever…’. However, they quickly told her that the proposal would be fine without them. ‘Oh well…’ she said with a shrug and grabbed all six poster boards and made out on her trek out to the vacant field. 

Damian, Gretchen and Karen came out to help Janis set up (but mostly help settle her nerves). Cady promised to rush out to the field as soon as her class was over. Even Aaron drove down thirty minutes from his university to help Janis. 

“Aaron you really didn’t have to make the trip down here.”

“You make it sound like I drove hours away” Aaron chuckled. “And besides, do you really think I would miss the opportunity to assistance the one and only Janis Sarkisian ask the once queen bee Regina to prom? Yeah I don’t think so.” 

Soon the final bell rang and Janis felt her nerves begin to pick up. ‘This is a dumb idea. This is ridiculous. She’s gonna say no, you’re gonna get _rejected_ by your _own_ girlfriend. Then she’s going to _break up_ with you then -”

“Hey are you okay?” Gretchen asked. 

At that same moment, Cady came barreling down the field. Her signature bright smile seemed to only shine brighter when she saw Aaron standing with them. “Babe!” She yelled and ran straight into his arms. He wrapped his arms tightly around her frame and spun her around causing her let out a hearty chuckle. Usually Janis could pretend to hate this and give some sarcastic comment about how gross the were being then laugh it off but now? She couldn’t even smile at the affection. It just made her more nervous. Her sick felt uneasy and her shoulders tensed. 

“You’re nervous huh?” Gretchen asked suddenly causing Janis to jump. Her voice was filled with so much sincerity that Janis felt her stunted response of “No, I’m fine” get clammed up in her throat. 

Gretchen reached out and grabbed Janis’ hands with her own, giving them a tight but comforting squeeze. Their eyes locked and she gave a shrug along a small smile and with that small gesture Janis knew what she was trying to convey. ‘There’s no need to be nervous. We’ll all be standing here with you.’ Somehow just the small gesture seemed to eased Janis’ rapidly beating heart more than actual words ever could. 

“Oh yeah I almost forgot!” Aaron’s sudden words snap Janis out of her peaceful reverie. She and Gretchen turn their heads to see Aaron reaching into his backpack, which had been surprisingly absent of textbooks or notebooks, and pulled out a single red tulip wrapped in clear wrapping paper with the price sticker expertly peeled off. 

“Here for you.” Aaron said with a gentle smile offering the flower to Janis. “I know you were freaking out about not having some so I stop by the store before coming here. No promposal is complete without a flower.”

Janis couldn’t speak, she just stared at the single vibrant flower in Aaron’s hand. She looked up to Aaron and Cady who was standing next to him. The face of pure joy adorning her face. Then her attention veered to Damian and Karen, smiles plastering their faces. Damian mouthed ‘grab it’ while pointing to the tulip still being held out to her. Janis finally faced Gretchen who offers her one last squeeze before letting go of her hands. Janis slowly reached out and plucked the tulip from Aarons fingers. And with that every last nerve and jitter had vanished. There’s no reason to worry about the what-ifs or uncertainties she had no control over. She would throw caution to the wind and with friends like these she’s sure that she would remain standing. 

“Here she comes!” Gretchen called out, causing the group to turn and face the direction she was pointing in. “Everyone places!”

Regina crossed the grassy field wearing a pair of white ripped jeans, black high top converse, a black crop top, and her blue and yellow letterman jacket she received from this past lacrosse season, (it still shocked Janis and the crew to this day that the once former plastic - who was hit by a bus and received a major spinal injury less than a year prior - not only decided to play lacrosse, but also received a letter in the sport. Her girlfriend was a freak of nature, a beautiful one but still). Her make-up was soft and her dark blonde locks cascaded down perfectly framing her face. She wasn’t dressed fancy by any standard but Janis thought the girl had never looked more beautiful. 

“Hey Jan -” Regina stopped mid sentence and took a look around the field. “And everyone else...?” Regina said hesitantly from a few feet away. A large white purse hung from her shoulder, clashing a bit with the athletic aesthetic she had going on. But being Regina it somehow still worked. “I thought it was just going to be us out here…. What’s going on?” she  clutched onto the straps of her purse even tighter than before.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? For what?”

“I should of done this a while ago.” With that Janis presented the red tulip to Regina, who immediately accepted it 

“Jan what is this for? Done what exactly? Janis?”

Instead of answering Regina’s pleas, Janis picked up the poster board that had been laying on the ground and flipped it over for her girlfriend to read. On the white poster board written in some mixture of fancy pink cursive script and block letters were the words: “Sorry It’s Not A WEDNESDAY. But This Sign Is Written In PINK. Will You BE MY DATE? WHO CARES What Others Think!”

Regina read the sign. Then she read it again. And again. When she finally processed what was happening, she looked up to see five more poster boards being held up by her friends behind Janis. The boards alternated colors from black to pink and on each of the signs was a large uppercase letter. A white P, black R, white O, black M and a white question mark. 

‘Oh my, oh my God Janis is promposing. Janis Sarkisian IS ASKING ME TO PROM!’

“Regina?” 

Regina blinked a few times then peered up at Janis before looking down at the ground, saying absolutely nothing. In all honesty, it was freaking Janis out. “So whadda you say?”

A few more awkwardly tense moments pass before Janis heard Regina mutter: “Damn it Janis.”

Janis recoiled slightly at Regina’s words. “W-what?” Did she miss something here? Was Regina actually UPSET by what Janis did? 

“I was supposed to do it first.”

Now Janis was even more confused. “Ah, do what?”

Regina just sighed and reached into her large purse, pulling out a small golden cardboard box with a brown ribbon wrapped around it. Without looking directly at Janis, she held out the box for Janis to take. Janis grabbed hold of the box and examined it closely. Under the ribbon was the words ‘ _Le Petit Bonbon_ , _a French bakery_ '. Janis swiftly began working on untying the ribbon. Once it was removed, she open the box to discover something written on the inside of the lid in black permanent marker.

JANIS

Peering down Janis sees five different macarons, stacked in two rows of two with the final fifth one in the front. Each one was covered in what she could describe as multicolored splattered paint. But what caught Janis’ eye was what was written on them. In chocolate, on top of each macaron were the letters: P-R-O-M-?.

Janis threw her head up to see Regina twisting lock of her curls around her finger, still avoiding any semblance of eye contact. “I knew that you didn’t want this ask thing to be a big deal. A-And I was just going to ask you straight forward if you wanted to go to prom with me. But when Karen asked how we asked each other to prom I knew that I wanted to do something for you. And my mom knew the owner of the bakery already so I called in a favor at lunch on Friday and had him make these specialty macarons. But it takes a couple of days when you order them so I was going to ask you earlier today. But when you said to meet you out here after school I thought now would be the perfect time, but I guess you beat me to the punch huh?” Regina spoke trying conjure up some confident flippancy in her tone, but the underlying wave of uneasiness gave her away. 

‘We’re such idiots.’

Using the one hane that wasn’t holding the box of macarons, Janis reached out her hand to gently grab on to Regina’s chin, lifting her head causing their eyes to once again meet. With their eyes locked, Janis gave Regina a loving smirk before closing them, leaning in to place a soft but deep kiss on her lips. Regina wasted no time in reciprocating the action, bring her own hands up to place them on the back of Janis’ head to her in closer.  

The two broke apart to the sounds of their friends “awws” and “ohhs”.  Regina just rolled her eyes. “Very mature you guys.”

“You know Gina you never gave me an answer.”

“To what?” Regina asked turning her head.

With a shit eating grin Janis replied, “will you go to prom with me?”

Regina gave Janis her best ‘are you shitting me?’ face and Janis bursted out laughing.

“Seriously Janis?”

“Humor me.”

“Yes stupid, I’ll go to prom with you.”

With that, Janis swooped down to steal another kiss from Regina before turning back to her friends. “She said yes!” in her best imitation of an overly excited bachelor who just proposed to his girlfriend. 

Poster boards were tossed up high in the air and a stream of screams and hoots were let out by the five behind them. Gretchen and Cady raced to see who could tackle the two in a bear hug first resulting in all four of them nearly falling over onto the grass. Karen and Damian joined the fray next, followed lastly by Aaron.

Per Regina’s request (borderline demand), a multitude of pictures were taken and promptly posted to their social media accounts. When that was all done and over with the group began walking out to the school parking lot. "You know what guys,” Cady chimed in “we should all go out and celebrate!”

“Yeah, go and celebrate the fact that Janis managed to not throw up when asking her girlfriend to prom” Damian snickered. Janis just elbowed him the arm and shook her head.

Regina reached out and took Janis’ hand in hers, lacing their fingers tightly together. “As fun as all that sounds, do you think you can have fun without the two of us? I think I’m gonna keep Janis to myself for the rest of the day. If that’s cool with everyone?”

Sharing knowing looks the group waved the two girls off. “Yeah, yeah, go on lovebirds have fun” Aaron said waving the two off with his hand.

“But not TOO MUCH fun!” Damian quickly added.

“Oh Damian depending on what you define as ‘too much fun’” Regina spoke using her hands to air quote the words ‘too much fun’. “I don’t think I will be able to honor that wish.”

Damian gave the couple a face of mock disgust and everyone let out a laugh. “No need to worry about that Damian. I’m sure Regina over here doesn’t want either one of our mom’s to discover what sound she makes when she’s about to orga-”

“OKAY NOW SHUT UP JANIS HE GETS IT!” Regina screeched covering Janis’ mouth with her open hand, her face turning a dark pink shade.

“And on that note, I think we’re done here” Cady said awkwardly. “Enjoy yourselves you two, you deserve it.” Regina sighed and removed her hand from her girlfriends mouth. Janis responded by pulling Regina in closer to give her a hug from behind, her arms wrapping snuggly around the blondes waist. 

While the group said their goodbyes and made their way to their respective vehicles, Janis and Regina remained frozen in their stance. It was the feeling of warmth from entangled limbs and unfiltered happiness in their veins that made them reluctant to part. Closing her eyes Janis leaned her head down onto Regina’s shoulder, taking in the smell of her coconut shampoo and something else that was so completely Regina the brunette couldn’t put her finger on it. 

“Ready to go?” Regina asked ending the silence.

Janis kissed the side of Regina’s neck, “yeah okay let's go.”

Breaking apart from their comfortable embrace, they make their way to Regina’s white BMW when they pass Gretchen’s car and overhear: “oh I get it now! Janis was talking about Regina having an orgas-”

“KAREN!”


	2. Jerseys, Short Shorts and Dirty Sports

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina wants to try out for the lacrosse team and Janis is like ?????

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK!! I'm sorry this took so long. I have been really past these past few weeks. I took a vacation across the country to New York and was there for a week. I saw Mean Girls, BMC, Spongebob and OOTI (seeing Barrett and Taylor from the 5th row was life changing). But anyways I'm back now and trying to write more.This was requested by a reader who wanted a story about Regina looking good in her lacrosse uniform and Janis swooning. And that request morphed into this. It got a lot more real and angsty than planned so sorry about that. 
> 
> Well without further ado, enjoy!

When Regina first told Janis she was planning to join the schools lacrosse team, in all honesty Janis thought she was joking.

“You?” Janis asked her body turning away from the wet canvas to face the blonde who was sitting on her couch in the garage. 

“Yes.” 

“You...want to join the girl’s lacrosse team…?”

“Janis, yes. Why is this pill so hard for you to shallow?” 

“I don’t know maybe because IT’S YOU!” Janis exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Regina crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes hardening and her mouth morphing into a scrunched line. “Really Janis?”

“Well can you blame me?” Janis said with an exasperated chuckle. 

Regina whipped her head to the side to look away from her girlfriend, biting her lip in dismay. 

“Okay, okay I’m sorry but you gotta admit that it’s kinda weird that you of all people want to try out for the lacrosse team. Any sports team no less.”

Regina sighed and gazed down at the ground deciding that the dirty carpet was much more enticing than looking at her girlfriend. “That’s exactly the reason why I want to join in the first place.” Janis was now even more intrigued as Regina slowly continued on, “At school everyone thinks of me as think ex-Queen Bee bitch who only cares about herself that later got hit by a bus, and I want to change that. Everyone has their ideas of who I am but I want to prove to them that I’m not that terrible person anymore. Or at least I’m aiming not to be that type of person anymore. And I think by joining a sport I can help flip that idea on its head.” 

Janis just sighed and brushed her hand through her hair. “So you got your mom’s okay for this?” Regina looked up and gave Janis a smirk. “Yes.”

“And your doctor?”

“Yes Janis.”

“What about your physical therapist? Or even you’re regular therapist?”

“Janis oh my god yes! I got the okay from everyone and it was my therapist idea for joining a sport in the first place. She said that it would “help with building my trust with others and improve my social skills and standing with my peers, yadda yadda ya” Regina spoke with a wave of her hand. 

Janis sighed again and turned back to her canvas, peering at the blonde through the corner of her eyes. “So you’re really serious about this huh?”

Regina just nodded even though she knew Janis wasn’t directly looking at her. 

“Will you promise me that you will be safe and not overdo it?”

Regina whipped her head up, sprung out of her seat and made her way over to her “overly” concerned girlfriend, a smile plastered on her face from her victory. “I promise.”

“And if your back starts acting up you’ll stop?”

Regina chuckled and wrapped her arms around Janis’ shoulders. “Okay Jan. Funny, I never would’ve taken you as this much if a worrier.” 

“Knowing you, I can’t help but worry…”

Regina just placed a tender kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek and squeezed harder. 

\---

The first few weeks of lacrosse practice was physically and emotionally challenging for both Regina and Janis. Many of the girls on the team had been playing with each other for years and were shocked (and slightly horrified) that Regina was trying out. How would have thought that the ex-HBIC known unanimously for being cruel and manipulative to others would be going out for a spot on a sports team. A TEAM sport nonetheless! Without a word being uttered, the rest of the old girls came to a decision to test Regina’s strength and loyalty to the team by seeing how far they could push her until she broke. 

For the next few weeks after tryouts Regina was put through the ringer. From being elbowed to the ground and shoved with excessive force, to clothes being taken from her locker, to even being “accidentally” hit with a ball on more than one occasion (does it really count as an accident if it happened more than once?). 

“Regina this is getting ridiculous!” Janis spoke with irritation seeping into her words, rubbing Regina’s back on her bed after a grueling practice featuring Regina getting whacked in the back by a lacrosse stick. “Why haven’t you said anything to the coach or someone?” But Janis already had an idea why. 

“Because Janis that’s what they expect me to dooo…” the girl trailed on, letting out a moan from the feeling of Janis’ fingered on her back. “They want me to cry and snitch or quit and run away with my tail in between my legs but I’m not! I’m gonna prove them wrong. I have to...” 

Janis could tell that there was more on Regina’s mind but knowing her girlfriend she wasn’t going to elaborate any further. 

Only a few days later after a girl was too rough on a dirty hit, Regina’s back began to burn and fell to the ground and began crying unable to move. It got so bad Janis had to rush over from her after school art class and take her home. When Janis arrived at the field there was Regina, lying on the ground howling in pain surrounded by her teammates, each face displaying a wide range of differing emotions from shock to horror and guilt. At this point Janis was at her breaking point. Janis had been holding back for the last few weeks but this was too much. Hurting her girlfriend so badly that she, a girl who rarely showed any of her true emotions especially when in public, started crying in the middle of practice was Janis’ last straw. 

“Okay fuck this, Regina you need to quit.”

“Janis-”

“No, don’t you “Janis” me! I’ve had it this bullshit” Janis yelled slamming her hands on the steering wheel of Regina’s car, causing the other girl to jump. “Either you tell the coach what’s going on or fucking quit. I’m tired of seeing you in pain all the damn time.”

“Janis you know I can’t do that.”

“No, no I really don’t know why! Please enlighten me.”

“Because I need to prove to them-”

“That you’re not weak blah, blah, blah. Yeah I already know that. But that’s not enough. What’s the real reason you’re letting yourself go through all this? Do you just like the pain?”

Regina stared at Janis in disbelief. “No that’s not-”

“Then why?” Janis exploded hands turning white from her tight grip of the wheel, eyes locked forward. Regina rolled eyes and turned to lookout the window. “Do you think you deserve to be treated like this?”

Silence filled the car as the two pulled into the driveway of the George household. Parking and turning off the car Janis turned to face her girlfriend who was still facing the window despite the car no longer moving. The sun blazing down on the girls face didn’t seem to bother her as the car visor was up in place. Janis could still see the tear trails on Regina’s face as well as specks of dirt. Mud and grass stained her sweats and there’s was a small scrape on her shin where her pant leg had rolled up. 

Janis felt the anger slowly be drained from her body and was being replaced with a new emotion: sympathy. “Regina? Do you actually feel that way?”

Regina’s face scrunched at the words and her eyes began to repeatedly blink, trying desperately to hold back the flood that would break through the dam at any moment. 

“Oh Gina.” That did it.

Tears began to flow endlessly down Regina’s face. Janis get the need to wrap her up in a hug but due to the constraints of being in a car she settled for the next best thing- grabbing her hand in a tight squeeze. Regina let out a forced exasperated chuckle, finally turning away from the window to only look down into her lap. “Regina you don’t deserve this.”

“But is that really true?” Regina said through tears. Her voice rough and raspy and despite being annoyed she couldn’t bring herself to be truthful angry. “I treated so many people like shit for so many years and what? I knew that I wasn’t going to be instantly forgiven or even forgiven at all and I kinda suspected that if I joined a sport I wasn’t going to be welcomed with open arms. But if dealing with this gets me closer to acceptance then it’s whatever. So if they want to beating me up and treat me like shit, who am I to say anything? I do deserve it.”

“Okay no that’s bullshit. You’ve already apologized, made changes to how you act and treat others and got fucking hit by a bus! You don’t need to take being mistreated and roll over like a puppy dog just so you can be forgiven. Some people will forgive you, others won’t, that’s just fuckin’ life. But you’re still a human being Regina and you deserve to be treated like one, and not like a punching bag.” Janis gave Regina a small smile, “plus take it from me, it’s not up to us to figure out and deliver the punishment when someone fucks up.”

Regina spun in her seat to fully face Janis, the tears starting to subdue and the slightest smile was beginning to breakout on her face. “Okay, you’re right.”

”Obviously” Janis said with a large ‘I told you so’ smile plastered on her face. 

‘If she keeps that up her jaws going to hurt…’ Regina rolled her eyes. “Oh god wipe the smug look off your face, I’m still not quitting.”

As fast as it appeared, the smile vanished. The ear-splitting grin was quickly replaced with a frown. “W-what? Why?”

“You were right,” Regina agreed nodding her head to the thought of Janis’ past words. “I can’t keep letting them treat me like shit, but at the same time I can’t let them think that they beat me either. I’m the bitch who came back and cheated death, what’s a little tackle going to do?”

Janis wished she could be mad. That she could slap some sense into this girl but she knew her mind was made up. “Ugh!” Janis groaned letting her head fall back and hit the headrest. “Whatever, I tried. If that’s what you really want to do I can’t stop you.”

Regina just smiled and fixed her makeup in the visor mirror, “it really is.”

Janis rolled her eyes with faux annoyance. “You know you are one of the most stubborn human beings I’ve ever met?”

Regina leaned over the console and placed a kiss on the brunettes cheek. “It takes one to know one deary.”

“Ha ha ha, very funny” Janis added as deadpan as possible, which was quite difficult when her girlfriend was inching closer and closer to her lips. Janis closed the distance between the two and the feeling of warmth took over her body, nearly completely forgetting that less than five minutes ago she was ready to tear apart the whole girls lacrosse team limb from limb. 

The next day when Regina walked onto the field for practice she discovered that the rest of the team was already running. ‘But I’m ten minutes early?’

Speed walking to the bleachers, Regina set her bag down and made her way to the rest of the team. When the rest of the team noticed the girl making her way over many of them either slowed down to stare or stopped running completely. “Hey! Did I tell you to stop running? Pick it up!” The coach screamed for the sidelines until he turned to face Regina. “Ms. George.”

“Coach what’s going on?”

The middle aged coach gave Regina a look that could simply be described as pissed off. “Well after you left practice yesterday, the girls came forward and told me how they’ve been treating you these last few weeks. So as punishment today I made them come directly after school and half of today’s practice will be dedicated to running only. More if I’m not satisfied.” 

Regina did the math in her head. Lacrosse practice started at 3:00 pm, about an hour after classes finished and ended at 5:00 pm. So if she was doing her calculations correctly, “they have about thirty minutes to go right?”

“Around that yes.”

With that Regina ran over to the rest of the team and started running suicides along with them. When the thirty minutes were over the coach let the girls go home after a brief but stern talk. “If something like this ever happens again, expect to run like this again but longer and harder. I don’t care what happened in school but once you step out on this field you’re teammates, so act like it.”

Regina was reaching into her bag to call Janis and tell her about the change of plans when the rest of the girls led by the team captain, a red headed senior named Alice Roberts, piled all around her. 

“Hey George, we, we seriously are all sorry for what we did to you.”

“Yeah, really sorry” Tamia Brooks, a sophomore with beautiful ebony skin, spoke up from the crowd. 

Alice spoke up again, “we just wanted some form of payback for everything but we went way too far.” 

Regina folded her arms and put on her best blank, intimidating face, which seems to strike some fear into the rest of her fellow teammates. “Okay, apology accepted.”

The twenty something girls felt their jaws drop. “Tha-that’s it?” Alice stammered out in shock. 

“Yeah, I mean obvs what you all did was pretty shitty but then again I did treat most of you like shit for years so I can’t be too spiteful. Plus I just want all this stupid drama to be over. So are we all cool or what?” 

Alice gave Regina a sincere grin, “yeah George we’re all cool.”

\---

The first Thursday in March was the day of the first lacrosse game of the season and the group was going all out. Signs were made, faces were painted and Cady, Gretchen and Karen had all come up with stupidly cheesy cheers for Regina that even Janis had to admit were quite catchy. Even Aaron had come down from school to support. 

Janis tried to play off being her usual calm, borderline aloof self, but she couldn’t help but worry about her girlfriend warming up down on the field thirty feet ahead of her. No other incidents had occurred in the last few weeks after the group made up but Janis still feared Regina getting hurt. ‘Ugh who the hell am I becoming? When did I get so soft?’

“Hate to admit girl but you’ve always been soft.” 

The sound of Damian’s voice snapped Janis out of her thoughts. “Did I…?”

“Say all that out loud? Yes you did hunny.”

Janis groaned and let her head fall onto Damian’s shoulder. “There, there,” Damian said softly, patting his best friends head with one hand and wrapping another around her shoulder. “Regina is going to be fine!” 

“I know that! But my stupid brain won’t take that as an answer…”

Damian shook his head and was about to continue but before he could Karen screeched out and pointed, “THERE’S REGINA!”

And there in the #11 jersey was the blonde herself, hair tied up in a ponytail stretching with the rest of the team. Janis watched how the girl was laughing and smiling with the team while they warmed up, the anxious feeling in her stomach easing away. However once the game began all the smiles and pre-game giddiness was gone. In its place was a face of fierceness and determination that instantly hooked Janis in. All the people and sounds of talking and cheering vanished, to Janis there was only Regina. 

‘A lioness, only with less fur,’ that described her perfectly. On the field Regina was ruthless. Her hits were hard which infuriated the other team. But when the opposing team got a good look at her steely face they instantly backed off. 

For the whole game Janis kept her eyes locked on Regina. She focused on the way her calf muscles looked as she ran up and down the field. How her toned arms fit snugly in her uniform. The way when she lifted her arms to catch or throw the ball, the edge of her shirt would slightly lift up giving Janis a glance at her nearly flat stomach. ‘Damn all this lacrosse practice and physical therapy has Regina looking fit…’

“Damn Janis thirsty much?” Damian asked sarcastically causing the rest of the group to giggle, or in Karen and Cady’s case full on belly laugh.

Janis felt her cheeks redden as she realized that, once again, she had accidentally spoken out loud. “Fuck off Damian..” she muttered them focused back on the game. Regina was a sweaty, flustered bombshell and Janis was completely enamored by her. 

When the game finished, the Lions beating the Bulldogs 4-2, the group rushed to the field to meet Regina and congratulate her on her win. With the make their way down Regina is just finishing up with post-game meeting and is grabbing her bag from the sidelines. 

“Regina!” 

When she lifts her head she’s met with Cady, Gretchen and Karen encapsulating her in a massive group hug, each girl talking so fast and loud over the other the only words she can make out are “congrats”, “so good”, and “looked fit”. When they let go Regina thanks them all for coming. She notices Janis standing a couple feet behind the rest of the group so she makes her way over to her. 

“Hey.”

“Hi.” 

“So...what did you think?”

Janis sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “Alright I’ll admit it, I was wrong this is a good fit for you. You were right all along.”

“Like usual” Regina replied with a smirk. She wrapped her arms around girlfriends neck, pulling her closer in towards her. Janis reciprocated the action by placing her arms around Regina’s waist. “So what made you change your mind? Was it because you saw how amazing I was and how much ass I kicked?”

“Well-” 

“I think Janis over here was too busy staring at your ass in your uniform to be paying attention to the game G.”

Both Janis and Regina whipped their heads to stare at Damian in disbelief. “Ohh, is that so?” Regina asked in a sultry voice turning to face Janis, her famous smirk on full display. 

“Damian you fucking traitor!” Janis muttered harshly under her breath. 

“Now, now Jan it’s fine” Regina said calmly leaning in to place a short kiss on Janis’ lips. She pulled away slightly, their lips just barely touching. “If you like seeing me in my uniform so much that just means you need to keep coming to my games okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp I hope you enjoyed that. Sorry it's so much shorter than the other one I posted. I tried *shrugging emoji*


	3. Choking on Forgiveness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina George was dying, there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. She wasn’t dying from cancer or a bad injury or even an overdose or addiction. No, she was dying from coughing up too many damn flowers. And a bit of blood as well, but mostly flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this?!? Two updates in one day??!!!??  
> Yeah I had been working on this plus the two request I got side by side. I was gonna wait until I finished all the chapters then post them but I got impatient. (wow only 3 chapters in and you already broke your mention paint in every chapter rule...way to go me). But any whooo, this chapter is long again so yay! (unless you like shorter chapters then boo?)

“Bleeuug” Regina retched into the girls bathroom right outside the schools cafeteria. Small blue and violet bell shaped petals filled the bowl, mixed with yellow bile tinted with small hints of red. Regina wiped her lips of any stray petals, beads of sweat steamed down her face and tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. 

It hurt. Everything fucking hurt. Her breathing was harsh and short. Her body ached and her throat raw and sore from the seemingly endless coughing fits and the long minutes of throwing up. 

‘C’mon Regina get your shit together’ she thought to herself, clutching firmly to the front of her shirt. She squeezed her eyes shut and grasped tightly on the rim of the bare toilet seat. Now in any other situation Regina would be horrified at the prospect of touching a public bathroom toilet seat but as it now was her defense from full out dizzily sprawling out on the ground she would suck it up. Deep breathes in and out, one, two, three, four. Rinse and repeat. 

Once her breathing had began to return to normal, the door to the bathroom slammed open and two sets of footsteps raced in the door (well one pair did while the other seemed to be taking a more reasonably slow pace). ‘Well shit I took the time to hang the fake out of order sign and everything…’

“Regina are you still in here?” 

‘Shit Gretchen.’ Regina quickly stood up from her crouching position. The speed at which she stood up with, mixed with her previously mentioned dizziness equaled an even more dizzy Regina who as a result accidentally slammed into the stall door. “Ow dammit” she said with a labored whisper, holding on to the door and wall trying to regain some composure. 

“Regina?” This time the voice was Cady. 

“H-hold on!” Regina flushed the toilet and watched the petals swirl around the bowl and vanish in front of her very eyes. After making a sweep around the stall to make sure all evidence of what just transpired had been disposed of, Regina grabbed her bag, took one more deep breath and unlocked the door. 

Taking three steps out the stall she turns to her right and sees a concerned Gretchen and Cady looking at her. “Regina are you okay?” Cady asked. “Yeah I’m fine.” Regina tried to act as nonchalant as possible but Cady wasn’t having it. 

“You’ve been in here for almost twenty minutes. Lunch is nearly over.” 

Instead of answering Regina walked over to the sink, adamantly avoiding looking into the mirror, and began washing her hands. She scrubbed and scrubbed, trying to get off any trace of filth the could leftover from the toilet. Her hands burned from the high temperature and began to turn pink and raw from the harsh scrubbing but Regina couldn’t bring herself to truly care. The sensation of the scalding water hitting her skin gave her a distraction from her surroundings, from the real-ness of everything that was going on in her head and in her body. 

“Regina…” Gretchen said sullenly, snapping the other girl out of her reverie. Regina turned off the water and slowly gazed up to look up in dirty mirror in front of her. In all honestly she looked like a mess. Her once perfectly done hair and makeup were now ruined - her blonde curls now disheveled and tangled with a few miscellaneous petals lodged in, her makeup now slightly smudged from the sweat and constant face rubbing. Her mouth had bits and pieces of blue and purple petals stuck in her teeth and tongue. Regina sighed and reached into her bag and pulled out a travel sized toothbrush and toothpaste which she had packed for this very reason. 

Seeing Regina begin to brush her teeth and spit out small chunks of flower petals is what sparked Cady and Gretchen out of their shock and back into action. 

“Regina you have to tell her.”

Regina spit out the remainder of the toothpaste in mouth and rinsed out her mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Cady. Tell who what?” she spoke slowly and coolly, staring at Cady through the mirror. 

“Oh cut the bullshit Regina!” Gretchen uncharacteristically cut in, shocking Cady, Regina and even herself. “This is the third time this week we’ve caught you throwing up in a school bathroom! It’s getting worse and you know it.”

Reaching into her purse to retrieve her pale pink makeup bag, Regina replied with an indifferent “It’s not a big deal.”

Now Gretchen was starting to get angry, and anxious. A terrible combination for everyone involved. “Not a big deal? NOT A BIG DEAL REGINA? You know how these stories go. If you don’t tell her soon you’ll just get even worse, than you’ll-” 

“Die? So what?” Regina shrugged, putting concealer on her face. “I’ve already died once so what’s going out one more time?” Regina usually kept the nihilism down to a reasonable degree but to her dying seemed much more appealing than confessing her feelings to someone- she had physical evidence to prove- didn’t feel the same way. 

“Regina don’t say that-”

Regina slammed her makeup brush down in the bag, which caused the bag to slip into the sink. “Why! Why do you care so damn much anyways?”

“Because we’re your friends” Cady spoke up firmly. “That’s why.” She walked over to Regina and began to gently pull the petals out of Regina’s hair. The blonde stiffened for a seconds before relaxing and letting the other girl continue. “I don’t know why that fact keeps slipping out that pretty, stubborn head of yours but it’s true. And we’re not gonna let you forget it, no matter how many times we have to tell you.” 

Gretchen swooped in and gave Regina’s left hand a squeeze along with a reassessing smile. Regina hated feeling patronized but at this moment not a string of anger coursed through her body. Instead there was a sense of comfort that washed over her, it was a nice counter to the uneasiness she had felt during her whole duration of puking in the bathroom stall. But she would never verbally admit that. 

The conversation came to complete silence. While the silence had an underlying sense of tension, there was also a feeling of peace and lack of judgment. The bell signaling the end of lunch rang out through the school but the three girls didn’t bat an eye. Regina continued to re-apply her makeup and the other two worked on her hair. 

The second bell signaling the start of fourth period rang while the girls were finishing up. Packing up her belongings, Regina, Cady, whose hand was balled up in a tight fist, and Gretchen walked out the bathroom. After tearing down her mock sign, Regina was beginning to walk down the hallway to her class before shortly turning around to face Gretchen and Cady who still hadn’t begun to move. Without looking at their faces Regina said “Hey, uh thanks for helping me. I appreciate it, really.” Then she quickly turned back around and headed to class. 

Gretchen and Cady were frozen in their spots, still trying to wrap their heads around what just happened in the bathroom behind them. Cady unclenched her fist revealing three purple and two blue flower petals that she pulled out of Regina’s hair.  
The two just stared at the petals and tried to figure out what they were going to do about their friend who was willingly killing herself in front of their eyes. 

\---

Regina never thought she would have the chance to become friends with Janis again. After the whole thirteen birthday party incident, Regina threw all ideas of reconciliation out the window. But after talking to Cady in the bathroom at Spring Fling and her rousing speech, Regina realized that at least an apology was in order. 

So she did. 

A week after Spring Fling Regina gathered her courage and made her way to Janis’ house and before she knew it she was knocking on the front door and asking to speak to Janis. Regina remembers the skepticism in Janis’ mom’s voice, questioning why the girl was at their house after all these years, and the hesitance she showed when deciding on if she should actually go and grab her daughter. Somehow Regina won her over and Ms. Sarkisian went to fetch her daughter. ‘Probably the spinal halo…’ She never asked the girl to come in and step inside and Regina wasn’t sure if she would have even if the older woman would’ve offered. 

The moment Janis appeared at the entryway is when Regina’s memory gets a bit hazy. She remembers apologizing and there being tears and even bit of screaming (more so on Janis’ part). The one thing she remembers clearly was what was said near the of their conversation - “I don’t know if I can forgive you or be your friend again. Not yet at least. We got quite the amount of shit we gotta work through first…but maybe we can? I’d be willing to try and give it a shot I guess. And I do appreciate the apology, even if it is a few years late.”

A shot. A chance to be friends again. A chance at forgiveness. Something she probably doesn’t deserve but not one she’s going to pass up on either. “I’ll take it.”

Before leaving Janis called out to Regina. “Hey, I-I’m sorry for what I for what me and Cady and Damian did.” 

Regina just shrugged (well tried to as best as she could in a spinal halo). “I forgive you. And besides I deserved it so whatever I guess.”

“Oh you definitely deserved something,” Janis agreed, “but I shouldn’t have been the one to deal it out to you. I’m not in charge of when karma comes and bites someone in the ass.” 

Silence. Before it could get too awkward Janis spoke up again. “Can I ask you one, no two more things?”

“Ask away.”

“Why did you really uninvite me to your party?”

Regina tensed, she knew this question would pop up, but she still wasn’t ready for it. “Popularity I guess.” ‘Regina you fucking liar.’

“Popularity?” Janis scoffed. “That was it? Five years of friendship for just that? Over a stupid status position?”

‘No, there’s more but you would hate me even more if I told you.’ “Yeah.”

Janis shook her head. “Un-fucking believable...was it worth it?”

Regina could answer that in a heartbeat. “Yes and no. Yes as in the immediate aftermath I got what I wanted and became more popular than ever. But in the grand scheme of things, no it wasn’t worth it.”

Janis let out a forced chuckle, “funny that’s how I felt about what we were doing to you. It was all fun and games until you got hit by the bus. Instead of being happy that the girl I deemed my biggest enemy was hurt, I just got scared and worried. I came to the realization that even if I couldn’t stand you, I didn’t want you dead either.” 

Regina was stunned. Her heart beating faster and faster. ‘There’s still a chance, there’s still a chance.’ Ignoring the pounding in her chest, she let out a small chuckle and with a smirk replied “some kind of worst enemy you are. Going and feeling scared about my wellbeing.”

Janis joined in the laughter. “Hey, you should be happy I felt anything for you, you dick!”

And Regina, with more sincerity than either thought she could manage, simply answered “who said I wasn’t happy?”

\---

After that it was slow process. Throughout the summer the six teenagers, plus the recent homeschool graduate Aaron, spent at least one day of the week together hanging out. Whether it be at the mall, or a coffee shop or someone’s house for a movie night, the weekly hang outs soon became a ritual. At first, these days were uneasy filled with stilted conversations from two groups who couldn’t have been more polar opposites. But no one was as bad as Janis or Regina. 

Any interaction between those two was as tense as a police interrogation. Every conversation topic was a game of Russian roulette, every word spoken was carefully chosen as if they were walking along a minefield and one wrong word would cause any idea of reconciliation between the two to blow up in their faces. The two never hung out by themselves, always choosing to surround themselves with at least one other person at any given time. Years of hate and distrust can do that to a person. 

But trust and friendship wasn’t rebuilt one one apology and few hang outs alone. It was built on dozens of small apologies at the most random times. Followed awkward silences, forced laughter and rough transitions. It was built on small gradual changes, internally and externally. Regina in the beginning struggled to let go of her plastic persona, the one she spent years in making, molding and perfecting to a tee. The one she had sacrificed so much to produce. But she knew the in the long run the strenuous effort would pay off-resulting in a new identity, forgiveness, a new Regina. 

So slowly, cracks in the mask began to appear. Old hobbies are unveiled. Secrets such as her love for trashy boy bands, Disney movies and brownie batter are revealed sporadically at movie nights and random spontaneous sleepovers. New clothes she once would never be caught dead in now made the rounds in her weekly wardrobe. And little by little more chips and dents in the mask arose. Broken pieces of what used to be, only to be replaced by what should be there. Layers peeled back one by one until a new person appeared in its wake. More sincere unadulterated compliments are found spewing out her mouth - one for Gretchen’s new purple top, another to Damian after his performance at a local theater production of “Spring Awakening”, even one to Janis after finishing a new painting that took weeks in the making. Favors are done for Cady and Aaron, no questions asked. And snarky comments and manipulation had hit an all time low. 

Of course Regina was still human so setbacks were inevitable. Days that featured harsh words and painful reminders of past inflictions still occurred, but no one was willing to let the past dictate where the future would lead them - they were stubborn that way. 

The day Janis and Regina were stuck by themselves without the rest of the group was completely by accident. It was mid-July and plans to hang out had been seemingly canceled as everyone else in the group had other engagements to attend to, but by the time Regina got the message her mom had already dropped her off at the Sarkisian household (once her spinal halo came off earlier that month, Regina’s mom had been adamant about driving Regina everywhere). 

She entered the house and walked into Janis’ makeshift art studio in the garage. Canvas’- blank, finished, somewhere in between - lined the entire garage. Open bottles of various sizes of paint, along with a few books and snack wrappers littered the floor. And there in the middle of the fray, headphones in, was the girl herself - Janis Sarkisian. She was sitting on a stool in front of a wooden easel, eyes laser focused on the painting in front of her. A large fan whirled away on the metal workbench, blowing the loose blonde locks that fell out of Janis’ messy ponytail all around her face. Paint glazed up and down her arms, face and even stray pieces of her hair. Her hands and fingers had been dyed multiple shades and multicolored fingerprints appeared all over her clothes. 

Regina stood in the door frame and stared at the other girl with a mixture of awe and uneasiness. Janis must felt Regina’s stare, and quickly whipped her head to face the blonde. “Oh hey…” 

‘Oh great she’s nervous too.’

“Hey, I just the message from the rest of the group. I guess it’s just you and me huh?”

“I guess so…” Janis trailed off, not looking in Regina’s general vicinity. Regina just sighed “look I can just leave and catch up with you later if that’s what yo-.” 

“No!” Janis hastily cut in, she turned fully in her stool to face Regina completely, looking in her eyes for the first time that day. “You don’t have to leave. Just uh,” she ran her fingers through her hair, more pieces falling out the band, “just sit over there.” She pointed few feet ahead to a ratty couch on the side of the garage. Regina raised a brow questioningly before shaking her head, walking over and sitting down. She was pleasantly surprised how comfy the old thing was. 

For the next few minutes there was only silence, the only sound coming from the fan whirring away on the workbench. The two girls off in their own respective worlds - Regina haphazardly checking the notifications on her phone, Janis trying (and failing) to paint away - but somehow the atmosphere in the room was off. After ten minutes of this Janis sighed and placed her paintbrush down on the tray of the easel. 

“Hey?” Janis spoke up suddenly, startling Regina. “Do you wanna go inside, make some snacks and watch a movie or something?” 

Regina was stunned Janis had thrown her a bone and who was she to refuse. “Yeah, sure.”

The two made their way into the house and then the living room. Janis surveyed the area to discover that her mom had left the house. “She must of left after letting you in. So that means we have the living room and moreover the house to ourselves.” She grabbed the remote and set up Netflix on the tv. The two bickered over what to watch until they decided on an old favorite ‘The Princess Diaries’. While queuing the movie up, Janis suddenly jumped up “shit I almost forgot: We Need Snacks! Okay so we need popcorn, drinks, something sweet…” Janis walked into the kitchen mumbling of to herself. Regina shook her head and trailed after the girl. 

When she reached the kitchen a bag of popcorn as already placed in the microwave. Janis was opening and closing cabinets and cupboards, shuffling their contents until she abruptly stopped. Her took her hand out the cabinet to pull out a box triple chocolate brownie mix. Janis just gave Regina a knowing look, “you want some?”

“Janis I haven’t had brownie batter in years.”

“Uh no way,” Janis spoke, her voice and posture just oozed skepticism. “You used to suck this shit down when we were kids. My mom used to have to stock up on this stuff to satisfy your need to eat it every time to you came over. She used to tell me how marveled she was that you managed to stay so skinny despite how much brownie batter you consumed. “Oh Janis how does she do it? If I ate as much brownies she did I would be as big as a bowling ball!””

Regina rolled her eyes playfully a small smile breaking out on her lips, “oh shut up.” 

“Hey!” Janis smirked. “Remember how we used to call you ‘Brownie Bit’?”

“Ugh don’t remind me of that stupid nickname.”

The two chuckled at the memories and Regina reached out and grabbed the box out of Janis’ hand. “So do you have a bowl for this or…?”

Batter was mixed, popcorn popped and the two sat down on the couch and began the movie. To say they actually paid attention to most of it however would be a blatant lie. The two talked throughout the majority of the movie and even started a popcorn fight during the baseball scene. 

When Janis’ mom returned home she walked in the living room to discover popcorn kernels all over the ground, a half eaten bowl of brownie batter on the coffee table and two sleeping teenage girls sprawled out and entangled on the couch. The wave of nostalgia that came from the sight nearly brought a tear the mom’s eyes. Seeing the two girls together again felt so familiar and right yet so foreign and scary. She pulled out her phone, snapped a picture of the two and walked back to her room to not wake them up.

(Hours later when Regina returned home Ms. Sarkisian showed off the picture to her daughter. Janis acted embarrassed at first but only hours later quietly asked for her mom to send her the picture.)

\---

Throughout the rest of the summer the two continued to grow closer and closer. They begin to hang out regularly one on one without the need of constant supervision from the friends. By the time senior year started things were turning into a new normal. The term ‘friends’ became a label they once again would be comfortable calling each other, but Regina knew that that wasn’t a hundred percent true. Regina was starting to feel something around Janis, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. The faster, harder thumps of her heart, the knots in her stomach. These feelings were part of the reasons Regina drove her friend away in the first place and she wasn’t going to let them get in her way a second time. She had shut them out before, so she would just do it again. Plus she knew Janis would never feel the same. They were just starting to overcome their traumas, slowly but surely. 

That’s when the coughing began.

At first it felt like nothing more than a small build up in her throat. Then came the sharp pains in her chest and shortness of breath. Soon the coughing got more and more harsh, turning into what could only be described as violent hacks. And then one day at lunch she coughed so hard she felt something crawl up her throat. Regina covered her mouth and after a few violent coughs she looked down at her hand to discover a three wet blue and purple petals in her hand.

At first she thought it was just a fluke, a random incident that would never happen again. However, a few days later more petals came spilling from her mouth. The pains grew stronger and the coughing turned into vomiting. Regina kept it a secret for a few weeks but Gretchen and Cady walked in on Regina coughing up a pile of blue and purple petals into the sink in the school’s girl’s bathroom.

After that discovery, the two girls forced Regina into agreeing to go to the hospital with them. So after school the three piled into Gretchen’s car and made their way to the closest hospital, which in fact turned out to be an urgent care not hospital. When they managed to get called the nurse gave Regina a mandatory check up which included taking her weight, height and blood pressure before diving into what could be actually wrong with her. More test occurred, from checking her breathing, to blood test and even an x-ray. Cady even handed the nurse a small plastic bag with a few of the petals Regina had spewed up in it. When the doctor arrived he quickly diagnosed Regina with “Hanahaki disease.”

Regina and Gretchen were shocked. Hanahaki disease? The disease they had only heard in fairytales? That’s what Regina had? Cady looked puzzled, “I’m sorry what exactly is Hanahaki disease?” 

The doctor gave the three girls a pitiful look, Regina hated it. “Hanahaki disease is basically a severe case of one-side love. When an individual experiences what they believe to be unrequited love they form small lumps on their lungs and sometimes heart which results in them coughing up different types of flower petals.”

“It there a way to cure it?” Cady asked frantically. 

“Yes there’s a few ways. One is for the person Ms. George here has a crush on to return her feelings. Love is the only thing strong enough to naturally cure the disease.”

‘And confess my feelings? Ha, like that’s gonna happen…’ Regina thought sarcastically to herself.

“Option two would be surgery to remove all the disease spots and petals from her heart and lungs. However this procedure is quite expensive and is known to have major side effects.”

“Which are?” Gretchen pressed.

“Ms. George here would lose all romantic feelings for the individual. The procedure is even known to have a messy affect on other emotions not just love. However, judging by the amount of affected areas in these x-rays, you Ms. George will have to come up with a decision soon.”

“Why’s that?” Cady asked hesitantly. She had an inkling to what the answer was gonna to be but she silently prayed she was wrong. 

“If she doesn’t come up with a solution soon her organs will fill up with petals, making it harder to breathe. As a result she will die from either suffocation or organ failure.” 

After that revelation the room was deathly silent. Gretchen and Cady felt tears begin to pool in their eyes but Regina was as stiff as a board. Not moving a muscle, absolutely silent. What could she say. Regina George was dying, there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. She wasn’t dying from cancer or a bad injury or even an overdose or addiction. No, she was dying from coughing up too many damn flowers. And a bit of blood as well, but mostly flowers.

“How much is the surgery?”

“Regina wait, hold on a second! You can’t be serious?” Cady yelled in horror.

“The average surgery cost about $5,000 before insurance. It’s new and quite difficult procedure that requires a lot of precision. Many things can go wrong with it.”

Regina weighed over her options. She already what she had to do but it didn’t make the decision anymore easier. 

“Uh thank you doctor but we’re gonna take Regina home now so she can really, truly think this over” Cady spoke rapidly, as if she was trying to exit the conversation and moreover the urgent care as fast as possible. They grabbed the information papers and made their way out the building. When the get into Gretchen’s car no one says a way, still trying to wrap their hands around the information they just were given. They make it few blocks before Cady speaks up.

“Hyacinth.” 

“What?” 

“Hyacinth. The type of flowers your coughing up, they’re called Hyacinthus” Cady elaborated, continuing on before Regina could even comment. “And each color has a different meaning. The purple ones mean sorrow for a wrong committed. You give them to someone when you are asking for forgiveness and want to show regret. And the blue ones represent sincerity. Hyacinthus in general are flowers given to symbolize a fresh new start.” Cady gave Regina a knowing look through the rearview mirror. “Regina I know it’s not my place to say, but I think you should tell Janis how you feel.”

“You know I can’t do that Cady-”

“Why?” she pleaded, turning in her seat to face Regina as best as she could. “Because Cady I am throwing up literal proof that she doesn’t feel the same way!”

“No, you’re throwing up literal proof that YOU don’t think she feels the same way!” 

“Whatever!” Regina yelled putting her hands over her face in exasperation. She let out a sigh before straightening out her posture, eyes glued to her perfectly manicured hands in her lap. “Look, Janis and I just got back into the swing of even being friends, I don’t want to fuck that up just yet with throwing feelings into the mix” Regina spoke quietly in a near whisper. “And besides the surgery doesn’t sound so bad. If get it that means I’ll never have to worry about falling in love with Janis ever again.” The words poured out her mouth like hot burning acid. It felt wrong, they were wrong and Regina knew it. Her stomach twisted and she silently hoped that the words came off more convincing to Cady and Gretchen. 

Cady and Gretchen gave each other worried looks. They definitely noticed, yet instead of bringing attention to their friends obvious lie only shook their heads. From disappointment, worry, confusion, pity? Probably a mixture of all of the above. 

“You two can’t mention this to Janis! Please!” Regina borderline begged. 

“Alright Regina we won’t say anything” Cady caved. “But will you at least actually think about telling Janis and not going through with the surgery?”

“Fine” Regina reluctantly agreed, aiming to end this conversation as soon as possible. She turned to peer out the car window, watching the trees and nature blur from the speed of the vehicle. 

“But,” Gretchen began, “you own us.” 

“What do you guys want…?”

Regina felt a chill go down her spine as she watched both Cady and Gretchen smirk in the rear view mirror. 

“Well...there is this cute new French café that just opened up and supposedly they have amazing desserts and drinks…”

“So I pay for you guys to stuff your faces and you’ll stay silent?”

Cady just smiled, “That’s usually how it works.”

\---

Janis Sarkisian was in no way an idiot. She could tell when something was wrong, especially when it came to the ex-HBIC Regina George. Call it a side effect from years of close friendship and then years of semi-hate observing. 

For the last few weeks had been acting strange. She would cough relentlessly and silently clutch her chest in pain. Then she would disappear for long periods of time, the minutes and instances only increasing as days went by. Janis rationalized This has Regina just being sick and stubborn. 

Then in the last week Regina had started to pull back from the group and more evidently, Janis herself. One on one hang outs canceled, movie nights bailed on and lunch (if she even showed up) were spent avoiding conversation and eye contact to the utmost degree. 

And Janis was getting sick of it. She thought her and Regina had moved past of this bullshit months ago but apparently not. 

“Hey George what gives?” Janis demanded, cornering the girl at the end of the day while she was grabbing her belongings from her locker. One look at the blonde put the fire Janis’ stomach out in an instant. 

Regina looked terrible - her eyes were red from crying and constant rubbing. The foundation and concealer failed to cover the dark circles underneath her sunken eyes. Her hair was sloppily put into a bun; and not the pretty sloppy buns that scream “effortlessly done despite it taking quite a bit of effort”, no it was an actual sloppy bun. Her hands were clutching tightly to locker door and her body was racking from her deep shaky breaths, ready to collapse at any moment.

“Damn George, what happened to you? You look like you just got hit by a bu-”. Regina glared at Janis cutting off her mid-sentence. “Sorry, that was in bad taste.”

“You think?” Regina replied sarcastically loosening her grip on the locker door to slowly continue pulling her supplies out and into her handbag. 

Janis slight scrunched her face, her eyes locked onto Regina’s jolted movements. “Hey, in all seriousness are you okay?” 

Regina forced a smirk onto her face. “If I didn’t know better I would think you were actually worried about me?” 

Janis gave out a huff, and glared at the girl in front of her. Since rekindling their friendship there were still some days Janis wondered why she ever did and if it was worth the effort. But despite how difficult she could be, Janis cared about the blonde headed girl and hated seeing her in pain. 

“Regina I’m serious.” 

Regina paused midway of putting ‘The Great Gatsby’, the book all the seniors were required to read for English class, into her bag. A wave of silence crashed over the two. One second turned to two, two turned into five. Finally, the quiet was broken by Regina with a simple “I’m fine Janis, I’ve just been feeling a little sick that’s all.”

Janis rolled her eyes “yeah sure, you’ve been “sick” for weeks now. If-if there’s something wrong you know you can tell me right? I know we’re still getting used to this but I’d like to think we’re friends.”

There goes that word. Friends. It was still a shock to hear Janis use that word to describe her relationship with Regina. For the past four months since they reconnected, the word friend when regarding Regina was rarely uttered by Janis. Regina can still remember the first time Janis called her her friend again clearly. The happiness and light air was she felt was indescribable. Now the word, while still good, only brought a feeling of painful tightening in her throat and chest. Followed by rounds and rounds of coughing. 

Closing her locker door Regina turned to face the dark haired girl in her graffiti covered jean jacket. “I appreciate your concern, honestly I do. But Janis I’m fi-” And as if on cue, a badly timed coughing fit began.

“Shit! Regina?” Janis began frantically whacking Regina’s back. After a few whacks Regina slid away from Janis, arm still covering her mouth. “I-I’m fine Jan-” more coughing interrupted her words. “I got, I got to go.” Regina rushed passed Janis down the hallway, not turning back to even glance at the dark haired girl. 

Janis closed her eyes, sighed and pinched her nose. When she opened her eyes and gazed at the linoleum floor she saw a trail of small blue and purple petals following the direction Regina stalked off. 

“Shit…”

\---

When Regina made it to her car she quickly ducked behind the side of the car not visible to the front of the school and coughed up the remainder of petals lodged in her throat. Once she finished she wiped her mouth, opened the driver's seat door and sped off to her house. Her mother, who just recently started allowing Regina to drive herself again, would be pissed if she knew her daughter was speeding in her car but Regina was in a rush. 

In record time Regina pulled into her driveway. Racing in the house, as soon as she reached to room she slammed the door shut and pulled out her phone. She walked over to her desk drawer and grabbed a semi crumpled piece of paper and dialed the number in the top left corner. 

Ring  
Ring  
Ring

Regina slowly paced back and forth around the room until a woman in her best customer service voice picked up, “Hello, this is the University of Chicago Medical Center Department of General Surgery. How may I assist you today?”

With shaky breath Regina began, “Hi, I would like to schedule a surgery.”

\---

Two doctors appointments and three lab test later, Regina is approved of her surgery, much to the dismay of Gretchen and Cady. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to just talk to Janis about all of this? Surgery seems so extreme! And what if…” Cady trailed off as if she knew something that Regina didn’t. 

Even her mom seemed against the idea but eventually agreed after observing her daughters deteriorating state. 

Regina brushed off their comments and pressed on with the surgery which was to take place a week before thanksgiving break. ‘A few days before Janis’ birthday…perfect timing.’

The final two weeks leading up to the surgery were some of the most difficult and painful Regina had experienced. The coughing fits seem to last longer, be more violent and even became more frequent (the worse one by far was when Janis admitted that a girl in her biology class had asked her out on a date. The fit was so sudden and violent that Regina had to be rushed to the nurses office and spent the remainder of the day at home. Which sucked because if she would’ve stayed for just a bit longer to hear the rest of the story play out, she would’ve learned that Janis had turned the girl down). Regina began skipping school, saying that moving and even breathing were becoming an impossible task. This worried the group to no end especially Cady, Gretchen and Janis. Cady and Gretchen started going to Regina’s house multiple times a week to take her homework she missed from class that day. Regina’s sickness and sudden reclusion from the group and school had Janis so paranoid, she cornered the two after school before they could make their run to Regina’s house. 

“Okay you two I know for a fact that you know more about what’s going on then you’re letting up. So spill.”

The two exchanged looks of guilt, concern and hesitance filled their faces. It was as if they were having a full blown conversation with each other without saying one verbal word. 

“Well?” Patience was not one of Janis’ strong suits. 

They turned back to the taller brunette after coming up with some form of a silent agreement. Cady dug into the small front pouch of her backpack and pulled out a small ziplock bag filled with...petals? Blue and purple, the same colors as the ones she saw after talking to Regina a couple weeks ago. 

“Regina is gonna kill us for telling you but you need to know.”

A week before her surgery Regina laid sprawled out in bed after another bad coughing fit that resulted in her puking out her intestines (well it felt like she was!). Cady and Gretchen were usually here by now-

Knock,  
knock,  
Knock 

‘Speak of the devils.’ Regina paced as quickly as possible to her door. “Thank god you’re finally here. It’s getting worse and I just-” midway through her rant, Regina actually paid attention to who she was talking to. And it wasn’t Gretchen or Cady. 

“Janis?”

“Hey” she said casually, walking right past Regina to sit down on her bed. “So…”

“What are you doing here?”

“I come bearing your homework” Janis reached into her bag and pulled out a small stack of papers. She held out the stack for Regina to take. 

“O-oh thanks…” Regina cautiously choked out, grabbing the papers out of Janis’ open hand. 

“Oh,” Janis added in amusement digging back into her bag pulling out a clear but crumpled ziplock bag filled with… shit. “I also came to see why the hell you haven’t told anyone about the flower thing. Well besides Cady and Gretchen of course.”

Regina froze, unable to breathe. And for the first time in a while it wasn’t because of her disease. “How did you-”

“Gretchen and Cady told me.” 

‘Those bitches…’ 

Janis gripped the hot pink comforter and stared down the blonde in front of her. Her past amusement gone, replaced with an icy glare. “Regina why didn’t you tell us about any of this? Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were friends now” her voice getting quieter as she went on.

Regina scoffed at Janis’ words. “Oh my god, YES JANIS you’re my friend! It’s the whole goddamn reason why I didn’t say anything to you in the first place!”

“What do you me-?”

“God, what did you want me to say Janis?” Regina howled frantically pacing around her room. “That I was coughing up damn flower petals because I have a big ol’ lesbian crush on you? That the real reason I broke off our friendship in middle school wasn’t just because of popularity but because I couldn’t deal with the fact that I felt that way about you? We’re friends, we just got back to calling ourselves that, do you think I would really I would jinx that because I couldn’t get over some stupid middle school crush that I know in no way would be reciprocated?” Her frustrations from the whole Hanahaki experience were uncontrollably tumbling out from her mouth, not fully realizing or even caring who she was confessing to and the implications of what these revelations would have in the long run. She just needed to vent and it felt damn incredible doing so. 

“I couldn’t take you hating me for being the world’s biggest hypocrite and losing you again because of it”. Tears now cascaded down her face, dripping to the carpeted floor, her slim frame shaking. “Do you think I really want to go through another major surgery that may or may not work and may cause some form of permanent damage? No, but it beats having to deal with constantly coughing, and puking, and everyone looking at me with pity in their eyes and getting my hopes up that you might actually feel the same wa-”.

Regina, so focused in her rant, didn’t notice Janis stand up and briskly walk over to her. Bringing her hands to cup the blondes wet flushed cheeks, she pulled the other girl towards her and roughly pressed her lips against her own.

Regina felt her body shut down and become slack in an instant. White noise, that’s all Regina heard. The only thing important to her was the girl in front of her. Janis’ callous hands were hot against her cheeks, in fact her whole body was a burning furnace that Regina felt heat up her entire body by proxy. Her lips were unbelievably soft, the kiss made Regina feel as if her lungs were being filled and emptied at the same time (speaking of kiss she should probably start kissing back…). By the time Regina snapped out of her reverie Janis was already beginning to pull back. Regina gripped her shoulders and brought Janis back in to recapture her lips once more. The brunette stumbled a few steps backwards from the sheer force but after regaining her footing she found herself feverishly returning the action. One kiss became two, two turned into three, three turned into a full blown make out session. The longer and deeper the kisses became, the easier it was for Regina to breathe. The pressure that had been building in her chest, close to reaching its breaking point, was being defused right before her very eyes. 

The two separated when breathing became an absolute necessity. They each took a few paces back, eyes glued to anywhere but forward unable to look at the other in the eye. Janis awkwardly cleared her throat as a way to part the think tension in the air. “So…that just happened.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry!” Janis rushed out, “you were rambling and I just needed to stop you for a second so I could process everything.”

Regina whipped her head to look at Janis, an incredulous look on her face. “So wait, you kissed me just to shut me up?” Hurt and anger seeped into her words and an overwhelming sense of guilt flooded Janis’ stomach. She knew that she had to issue damage control quickly before Regina shut down completely. 

“I mean technically yes with the first kiss but, ugh, look”, Janis walked back to Regina and held her hands, intertwining their fingers and squeezing tightly. “You were saying so much stuff and I couldn't take it all so I just..”

“Wait I thought Gretchen and Cady told you everything already?”

“Well they told me about the Hanahaki thing and your surgery next week but that was it. And Cady gave me that baggy full of flower petals but after that they told me nothing except to come and talk to you.”

Regina groaned and dropped her head. She had inadvertently outed herself and admitted her disease, surgery and long time crush on Janis TOO HER FACE without even realizing it. ‘Those two idiots. No, I guess I’m the real idiot here’. “Shit, I can’t believe I gave myself away because of a rant.”

“And a mighty rant it was.” Janis chuckled.

Regina joined in seconds later, “yeah I guess it was”. 

When the two regained their composer, Regina cautiously looked Janis in the eyes and with as much bravery she could muster asked “so how do you feel about, well all this?”

Janis peered down at their hands, still firmly intertwined. “I don’t know exactly what I feel. I don’t think I’m in love with you, not yet. But I will admit with certainty that what I do feel for you is more than just platonic friendship.”

Not yet. NOT YET. There was still a chance. Her feelings weren’t completely one-sided after all. 

“Not yet huh?’ she muttered softly, a smile threatening to break out, she’d take not yet. 

“What?” 

Regina just shook her head, “nah it’s nothing. So you admit it, you kinda like me?”

Janis rolled her eyes lovingly, “yes Regina, I kinda like you.”

The smile that she had been holding back broke out on to her face. Seeing the blonde so happy without any hesitation for the first time in months made the smile Janis now sported inevitable. The two continued to stand in the middle of Regina’s bedroom, hands held and smiles wide, lost in their own little world.

“Shoot, now I have to cancel my surgery!”

\---

For the couple few weeks the two teenage girls teetered around each other not knowing exactly their relationship was. Friends? Girlfriends? Who knew?

Regina continued to cough up a few petals on occasion, the number count lowering each time. After doing a bit of research they found that this was a normal occurrence for people getting over Hanahaki disease, a way to clean out your system of any remaining petals.

Regina and Janis didn’t officially start going out until after the groups Black Friday shopping trip, which Regina had tricked Janis into attending. Coincidently, it was only an hour later when they were found out by the rest of the group. 

At the beginning of December candy cane grams were being sold. Janis had been eying the tacky stand in the corner of the lunchroom ever since lunch began. Regina had looked especially beautiful that day, her blonde locks shining brightly in the artificial lights, her laugh music to Janis’ ears and all that other cliché crap. When Regina excused herself to the bathroom, Janis saw her opportunity. She bought the gram but struggled with what to write for the message. There were so many things she could say. Should she go with something grossly romantic? Maybe sarcastic? Humorous? Then it came to her, the perfect message. She scribbled it down, handed back to the student on the other side of the counter, then rushed back to her seat. 

A week later Regina was sitting in her history class when Damian, dressed in the school’s low budget Santa outfit and beard, barged in the door and began handing out candy canes. “One for Sue Bennett, three for Mark Morris, popular boy you are! And one for Miss Regina George.” Damian winked and handed her candy cane before all but skipping out the room.

Regina rolled eyes then inspected the gram. The handwriting was messy and rushed and she could instantly tell whose it was. When she actually got to reading the short message underneath, she felt tears begin to form in her eyes and a wide smile appeared on her face. She tried to cover her mouth but a giggle still slipped out. Her took a nice deep breath and closed her eyes, and let the warm feeling fill her chest. When she opened her eyes she glanced at the candy cane once more:

To: Regina George

From: Janis Sarkisian

I Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finished! I'm actually kinda proud of this chapter since I basically came up with the idea on a whim right before I went on vacation (aka I was writing instead of packing). But hey it's done now and I hope you liked it!
> 
> Please comment, kudos, like, subscribe, pet a fish, yeet a banana...I don't know where I'm going with this it's like 3 am here and I'm tired so goodbye!

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment down below, but nice if you are leaving any criticisms (I am a Gretchen Wieners at heart). Kudos are nice too!  
> My tumblr is: MiMyMomo so come message me over there you ever want to talk about Mean Girls or musical theatre in general. Okay bye until the next update!   
> You're All Stars!


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